


aqua vitae

by king_or_2_queens



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Dark, M/M, Murder Mystery, Rating will change, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2019-09-16 05:45:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16948143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/king_or_2_queens/pseuds/king_or_2_queens
Summary: The Shiota family has returned to Japan to escape the ghosts of Nagisa's past. However, upon joining Class 2-E at Kunugigaoka Gakuen, Nagisa finds himself sucked into a whirlwind of mystery, drama, and death. As it turns out, Nagisa's ghosts are more powerful than he could have ever imagined.





	1. Day I

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, friends! Thanks for checking out this endeavor. There might be long breaks in between chapters, unfortunately. :( I'll do my best, lol.

_**aqua vitae:** _ _water of life_

 _" If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink._ 

_He that believeth in Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of the water of life." _

John 7:37 - 38

* * *

_01:07 - Day I, Kabukichō, Shinjuku_

“Thirty thousand, correct?” the man said to the receptionist, smiling pleasantly.

The middle-aged woman nodded, though she looked a bit quizzical. The man, dressed in a smart grey suit, simply flicked through his wallet before tugging free three bills. “There you are,” he said, handing over the money. “Have a lovely night, miss.”

The woman pinked slightly, surprised by the stranger’s politeness. Usually the men who came through her lobby were nervous or rude, so it was a bit refreshing to meet one so nice. “Thank you, sir!” she called just before he left the room, inclining her head.

He tilted his head in return, then faced forward. The older fellow who had approached him on the street grinned from his position just beyond the desk, showcasing two rows of perfectly straight white teeth - it was an uncomfortable contrast to the deep wrinkles in the skin of his face and the stains that adorned his revolting clothing.

“Furījia is waiting for you, sir,” the older man said, leading the man down a short hallway. “Now, her Japanese is not very good, but then again, her mouth isn’t meant to be used for speaking anyways.” He then cackled as though he’d told the funniest joke in the history of jokes, and the man forced a slightly irritated smile.

Eventually, they reached a sliding door, which the tout gestured grandly to before striding off, still chuckling to himself.

The man silently opened the door, being sure to push it completely shut behind him as he fully entered the room. There was a Chinese woman kneeling there in plain blue undergarments, and her head jerked up in surprise as he entered.

“H-hello, sir,” she stammered uncomfortably. “I-I-”

“No talking,” the man snapped briskly. “You don’t need to talk for what I plan to do to you, Furījia.”

Furījia nodded quickly, and the man kneeled before her, lifting her chin so that he could look at her face. It _was_ certainly a pretty one, smooth and pale with plush, punk lips and wide, dark brown eyes enhanced by heavy makeup.

Unfortunately for Furījia, the man had never had the intention of enjoying her pretty face in the way that thirty thousand yen had paid for.

Instead, he lined up his shot with her cute, pale button nose, spared a moment to relish the look of nervous confusion on her pretty face, and then blasted her brains all over the crisp white sheets of their unused bed.

* * *

 

_08:13 – Day I, Kunugigaoka High School_

Nagisa Shiota stared up at the wide, clinically white six-story building that was to be his new school. On one hand, the school was within reasonable walking distance of his new home, so he didn’t have to suffer through an awkward car ride with his overbearing mother every morning. On the other hand, he knew the school’s reputation for excellence, and he was sure that his average grades would get him nowhere but at the bottom, especially considering the disparity between the curricula between this school and his old one.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when someone bowled him over from behind and the two of them tumbled to the grass. Nagisa blinked in surprise at the person sprawled on top of him, staring up into the deep blue eyes of a complete stranger, and immediately flushed in mortification.

The boy grinned sheepishly before scrambling off Nagisa and onto the grass beside him. He rubbed at the back of his neck with a baseball mitt. “Sorry, man!” he apologized, looking a bit pink himself. “Wasn’t looking where I was going. Everything okay?”

Nagisa laughed nervously and took the hand that the guy offered him, standing and brushing off his cargo pants. “I’m fine, thank you,” Nagisa replied after a short pause. He then noticed the well-worn baseball sitting on the ground about a foot to the guy’s left and bent over to pick it up. “Here, and be more careful while catching,” Nagisa chided lightly as he dropped the ball into the guy’s mitt.

“Hey, thanks! And sorry again…” the guy trailed off, clearly fishing for a name.

Nagisa looked the guy up and down and quickly decided that there would be no harm in telling him his name. “Nagisa Shiota,” Nagisa said, shaking the boy’s hand.

“Sugino Tomohito,” the guy said with an open grin. “Hey, Shiota-kun, are you new here?”

Nagisa furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before recalling that it was customary in Japan to call people by their family names unless you were good friends with them. Still, it bothered him. “Call me Nagisa,” he said easily. “Unless it makes you uncomfortable, Sugino-kun. And yes, actually. I just moved here from America last week.”

Sugino’s eyebrows rose in surprise at Nagisa’s preference for his first name, and they rose further still at his admission of having lived in America. His mouth opened, but before he could get out another word, Nagisa abruptly stepped to the right, narrowly avoiding a small boy with dark hair who plowed into Sugino at full speed.

“Shit, Kimura!” Sugino spluttered as he barely managed to keep his balance. “Warn a guy before you knock him over!”

 _Kimura_ stood up straight and laughed, unstrapping the baseball mitt he had on his left hand. “Well, sorry! I meant to stop _before_ I ran into you, but obviously it didn’t work. Anyways, why’d you stop pitching?”

Sugino clapped a hand on Nagisa’s shoulder. “This, Kimura, is Nagisa Shiota. From _America_.”

Kimura gave Nagisa an impressed once-over and held out his hand with a smirk. “Masayoshi Kimura, nice to meet you. So what class are you in?”

Nagisa flipped open his messenger bag and removed his crisp white schedule. At the top, his homeroom, class and seat were listed. “Koro-sensei, Class E - uh, what does that mean?”

Kimura and Sugino exchanged an awkward look, but Sugino began to speak in a strangely light tone. “Well, it means you’re in our class, which is totally awesome!”

Nagisa nodded slowly, smiling warily. “So what’s the problem, then?”

“The E-Class is...well, it’s the worst class, Nagisa.” Sugino sighed. “All the dumb kids and the troublemakers get stuck in the E-Class. And everyone in the school hates us.”

Nagisa rolled his eyes. “Well, then, it’s not so different from things at my _old_ high school. But anyways, would you guys mind showing me to the classroom?”

“Not at all!” Sugino chirped. And with that, they were off, heading towards the main building with purpose.

* * *

 

_8:29 – Day I, Class 2-E, Kunugigaoka High School_

Upon walking into the classroom, Nagisa was greeted with the sight of a wholly unremarkable man writing on the chalkboard behind the teacher’s desk. He was of average height, with an average build, dark hair, and dark eyes. His only standout feature was his strangely unkempt eyebrows.

“Hey, Sensei!” Sugino called casually, sliding behind Nagisa towards his seat. Kimura granted their teacher a wave.

“Good morning, Koro-sensei,” Nagisa greeted respectfully and bowed slightly. “I’m a new student, Nagisa Shiota.”

“ _Ah_ ,” Koro-sensei said, in a surprisingly exaggerated and high-pitched voice. “Great to meet you, Nagisa-kun. Please, take your seat. Class is about to begin.”

Nagisa was momentarily surprised when he realized that Koro-sensei had used his first name, but he accepted the good fortune and headed for Seat 11. As he sat down, taking out his Mathematics notebook, Sugino approached his desk.

“Hey!” Sugino said, smiling. “We can hang out at lunch, right?”

Nagisa grinned a little shyly, pleasantly surprised at how easily he’d made a friend. “Yeah, of course.”

The school bell rang, a familiar chime, and Nagisa looked around the classroom as Sugino scurried off to sit behind him, noting that four desks were unfilled. _Are they untransferred students, or are they just tardy?_ Nagisa wondered.

“Class representative Isogai-kun, please call attendance!” Koro-sensei commanded, still writing on the chalkboard at a dizzying speed.

“Yes, Sensei!” someone called. Then, a boy, the one who had answered, stood up from his desk on the other side of the room, holding a sheet of paper. Nagisa immediately liked him; his dazzling smile and golden-brown eyes aside, he exuded warmth while still commanding attention and compliance. “Akabane Karma,” he started, glancing around.

No one responded, but no one really looked all that surprised either. More than one long-suffering sigh could be heard from around the room, and Nagisa wished that Sugino were sitting next to him so that he could pepper him with questions.

“Okajima Taiga.” A boy with a shaved head and comically thick eyebrows drawled a lazy “Present.”

Then there was a short-haired girl, one with braids...as the list continued, Nagisa continued to doubt that he would be able to remember all of their names.

“Shiota Nagisa?” the class representative called, sounding slightly surprised as he glanced around the room.

Nagisa waved to catch the boy’s attention. “Here! And nice to meet you.”

Isogai beamed at him, and it lit up the room, leaving Nagisa a bit stunned. “And you!” Isogai replied in kind.

Just then, the door to the classroom slammed open, revealing a scowling boy with violently offensive two-toned hair, followed by a guy with a deep sneer and a dark-skinned guy who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. They began to make their way towards the back of the room, scowling and silent.

“Ah, Terasaka-kun, Yoshida-kun, Muramatsu-kun! How lovely of you to join us on this fine morning!” Koro-sensei called jovially to the three boys, turning to face the class.

“Shut up, you damn slimy pervert!” the Yu-Gi-Oh! reject snapped, slouching forward further as if trying to bury his whole arms in his pockets. He then all but collapsed into his chair, the two other students following suit.

Nagisa was shocked, expecting Koro-sensei to immediately hand out detentions for their tardiness and rude behavior, but the teacher just chuckled in response, once again returning to the equations he was scrawling all over the chalkboard.

Isogai cleared his throat and continued. “Sōsuke Sugaya?” he called.

The boy who sat behind Sugino looked up and waved. “Here!” he called, before returning his gaze to his arm. He was drawing something intricate on it with a Sharpie pen.

“Tomohito Sugino.” Sugino waved and called “Here!”

The remaining ten or so students were a bit of a blur, and Nagisa made a mental note to ask Sugino about everyone’s names during their lunch period.

“Alright, class! Let’s get started on real numbers!” Koro-sensei said grandly, sweeping his arm before the board as if revealing a great treasure.

Instead of the thirty-odd hearty groans that Nagisa was expecting, only one or two people made sounds of discontent. But even those were nearly swallowed up by the sound of most of the students flipping open notebooks and textbooks, clicking mechanical pencils and pens, and smoothing down pages.

Nagisa smiled, a little surprised at their behavior, but went along with it, facing the front of the class with everyone else and preparing to take notes.

* * *

 

_09:21 – Day I, Class 2-E, Kunugigaoka High School_

It was the last few minutes of math class - Nagisa had just _barely_ managed to struggle through the lesson. He had been right in assuming that his classes would be harder here. He was scratching the back of his head with a pencil, trying to ignore the rest of the class’s chatter and formalize the statements on the worksheet Koro-sensei had handed out, when someone tapped him on his left shoulder.

“Hm?” Nagisa turned around, and the green-haired girl in the seat behind him was smiling at him.

“Hi!” the girl greeted exuberantly.

Nagisa tried to recall what her name was from when attendance was taken at the beginning of class. “Hi...” he replied hesitantly. “Kayano-san?”

The girl grinned. “Wow, you remembered my name! Nice to meet you, Shiota-kun.”

Nagisa couldn’t help but smile back at her infectious excitement. “You can call me Nagisa. And…you too, but um...did you want something?”

Kayano flushed slightly before answering. “Oh, right! I just noticed that you’d been staring at one problem for a while, so I thought you might like some help.”

Nagisa’s eyebrows raised in surprise and he pinked in embarrassment – _am I that obvious?_ \- but he accepted. “Oh, thank you!”

Kayano explained the problem to him, albeit a little clumsily, and soon enough, Nagisa was having little problem answering the rest of the questions. “Thanks so much for your help, Kayano-san!” Nagisa said. “You must be very good at math.”

Kayano grimaced and went a bit pink again. “Actually, math is one of my worst subjects,” she confessed. “I’m just lucky that we’re on an easy topic.”

Nagisa laughed a little bit. “I’m just gonna go turn this in,” he replied, before heading up to the front of the room.

“Ah, Nagisa-kun. I noticed you were having some trouble with the practice problems,” Koro-sensei said as he took the assignment from Nagisa’s hands. “Got everything figured out?”

“Yes, Sensei. Kayano-san was a big help. The math class I attended in Florida was very different from this one; we were learning algebra and trigonometry,” Nagisa admitted.

Koro-sensei smiled slightly. “I can give you some supplemental work, if you would like. And you might want to try talking to some of our higher-ranked students, like Isogai-kun and Karma-kun,” he suggested. _Is he referring to the absentee Karma Akabane?_

When Nagisa nodded, Koro-sensei said, “We can talk more about it at the end of the day. For now, go sit down and get ready for science class.”

Nagisa nodded and headed back to his desk. He was nearly in his seat when, for the second time in that hour, the door opened. This time, it was with a gentle click, at least.

The boy standing in the doorway made for a much less intimidating silhouette than the other three tardy students. He was tall, but slim. He wore a soft-looking black cardigan in lieu of the school’s standard grey blazer, and his hair was almost violently red.

“Karma-kun, I won’t tolerate your tardiness every class period, you know,” Koro-sensei chided.

The student, the mysterious Akabane Karma, rolled his eyes and shrugged. That was when Nagisa noticed that he wasn’t carrying a backpack. _How does he plan on following the lessons without books?_

“Sorry, Koro-sensei!” Akabane said sincerely. “Make the lessons more interesting, and maybe I’ll show up more often!”

Nagisa covered his mouth to stifle his laughter, and it seemed like a few other students were doing the same thing. Koro-sensei frowned deeply, his expression the most serious that Nagisa had ever seen it. But then the bell for the end of first period rang, and he didn’t get to say anything.

“Be ready by the time I get back!” Koro-sensei told the class. The students responded with a resounding affirmative, and their teacher rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Nagisa turned around in his seat to face Sugino, who smiled at him. “Can you tell me how the class schedule works?” he asked, somewhat embarrassed. Nagisa’s mother had told him to go over the school’s bell schedule _before_ the first day, but Nagisa had ignored her advice. “At my old school, we had eighty-minute block scheduling with students moving to different classrooms and three different lunch blocks.”

Sugino nodded. “No problem! All of our classes are fifty minutes long, and we have a little bit of time between each one for the teachers to get ready. In a normal class, the teachers would exchange classrooms, but since this is Class 2-E, we only have one teacher for all of the subjects. We get a twenty-five-minute lunch in the classroom around midday, and we have six-person groups to clean up around the school at the end of the day,” Sugino rattled off.

“Wait, only one teacher?” Nagisa asked. “For all of the classes?”

“Yeah, but Koro-sensei is a great teacher, so we don’t need more, I don’t think,” Sugino said flippantly. Then he refocused. “Speaking of, how was your first period? I know math’s not _my_ favorite.”

Nagisa sighed. “Yeah, me either. _And_ this is a totally different area of math from the one I was learning at my school. I’m pretty lost, to be honest. But Koro-sensei suggested that I talk to Isogai-kun or Akabane-kun about being tutored.”

Sugino’s face took on a slightly uncomfortable quality. “D-”

“You need help in math?”

Nagisa nearly jumped out of his chair in surprise, and might have, had he been able to.

But Akabane had one hand planted on the back of Nagisa’s chair, and another hand flat on his desk, effectively boxing him in, all with a slightly wicked smirk on his lips. This close, Nagisa could see that Akabane’s eyes were a soft hazel.

“H-hello, Akabane-kun,” Nagisa stammered, caught off guard. He looked down and away from Akabane’s face, feeling overwhelmed by his presence. A thick, woodsy scent teased his nose, and Nagisa forced himself to drag his gaze away from the way Akabane’s shoulders _so nicely_ filled out his black sweater and actually look back up at his face.

Akabane’s eyes also trailed up from somewhere below Nagisa’s chin and looked him in the eye. He seemed to search for something in Nagisa’s face before finally responding. “Call me Karma. And I’d be more than happy to help you out until you get your footing, Shiota-kun,” he said with a lopsided grin. Akabane brazenly trailed the backs of two fingers over Nagisa’s right cheek, pushing stray blue hairs out of his face. Nagisa flushed a deep red, and Akabane chuckled deeply in apparent amusement. Then he crouched down and slid a folded piece of paper into Nagisa’s breast pocket, resting his palm briefly on the curve of Nagisa’s shoulder as he stood back up. Nagisa felt a pleasant shiver run up his spine in response. “Email me, okay?” he finished, pulling back and sliding his hands into his pockets.

“Uh...uh-huh,” Nagisa mumbled, nodding dumbly. Akabane smiled slightly and began heading back to his desk at the rear of the room. “W- Karma-kun, wait!”

 _Karma_ turned back, his face open and inquisitive. “Yeah?”

“Please, call me Nagisa,” Nagisa requested softly, trying and failing to meet Karma’s eyes.

Karma grinned and responded with, “Of course.” Then he sauntered back to his seat, leaving a _very_ dazed Nagisa in his wake.

Sugino coughed pointedly, and Nagisa’s heart skipped a beat before restarting at a normal rate. _I totally forgot that he was sitting right there!_ “Well,” Sugino hedged awkwardly. “That was almost R-rated.”

Nagisa laughed nervously. “Sh-shut up. But seriously, what _was_ that?”

Sugino shrugged, but he looked sort of nervous. “I don’t know, actually. He can be crass, but he isn’t usually that _flirty._ But…you should really stay away from him. That whole group is…really strange.”

“What do you mean by that whole group?” _There’s_ more _of him?_

“Well,” Sugino began ticking off his fingers. “There’s Karma-kun, the really smart but really mean one, then Nakamura-san, who’s basically Karma in female form, Okuda-san, who actually isn’t that bad but is just kind of awkward, and…” Sugino trailed off, blushing.

“And…?” Nagisa prompted.

“Kanzaki-san,” Sugino sighed, his eyes and voice taking on a dreamy quality. “She’s so gorgeous, and smart, and nice…I have no idea how she stands being around those _demons_.”

Nagisa rolled his eyes a little bit. “Sounds like you have something of a crush,” he replied playfully.

Sugino’s face twisted into something pained. “Well, we’re _sort of_ in a relationship.”

Nagisa leveled Sugino with a dry look, and Sugino absent-mindedly scratched his forehead before replying. “It’s really on-and-off, you know? Sometimes we’re in a relationship, and sometimes we aren’t. This is one of those times when we’re taking a break.”

Nagisa nodded as if he understood, but really it seemed a bit _soap opera_ to him. His own dismal track record with dating only involved the all-or-nothing type of relationship.

But he didn’t like to think about that if he could help it.

“Which one’s Kanzaki-san?” he asked eventually.

Sugino verbally pointed out a girl across the room who was smiling and nodding as someone else spoke to her. She had long, straight dark hair, a slim build, and wide hazel eyes set in a soft, classically pretty face. Even Nagisa had to acknowledge that she was gorgeous, and he said as much.

Sugino laughed. “Yeah, but she’s mine, so don’t even try it,” he warned, a strange look in his eye.

“By the way,” Nagisa changed the subject, wary of Sugino’s expression, “there’s a _lot_ of people in this class, and I’ve only really met four of them. Do you think during lunch you could tell me more about the class?” Nagisa asked, not sure if it was a weird thing to request.

“Yeah, sure!” Sugino said easily. “But for now, we have to get ready for chemistry. On a lab day, we’d go to the lab room, but I think today’s a lecture day.”

Nagisa nodded, and then he began to exchange his math notebook for his chemistry one.

“Okay, class!” Koro-sensei said, marching back into the room. “Let’s see how well you memorized the periodic table.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for dropping in!


	2. Day I-II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks again for dropping in!

_12:17 – Day I, Class 2-E, Kunugigaoka High School_

 

Nagisa retrieved his bento and chopsticks from his bag. He hoped it didn’t look too ridiculous; he was pretty out of practice when it came to packing his own lunch.

Sugino hummed in interest as he unwrapped his own yakisoba bread. “I’m kind of surprised that you have a bento. I was expecting something more…American?”

Nagisa laughed at his friend’s confusion. “I’m not actually American, Sugino-kun. I’m full-blooded Japanese; I was just raised in America. But my mom really wanted me to carry on my heritage, you know?” Nagisa blushed slightly as he picked up his chopsticks. “So she only spoke Japanese when we were home alone, and she made sure I knew the proper way to address people, behave, and dress. She also made me make all my own bentos for lunch throughout junior high.” Nagisa picked up a strawberry chunk with his chopsticks and shoved it in his mouth to stop himself from saying anything _else_ about what his mother made him do.

“So why did you move back here from America, then?” Sugino asked through a mouthful of noodles.

Suddenly, red filled Nagisa’s vision and sticky liquid splattered against his chin and lower cheeks. Nagisa flinched back in surprise, nearly dropping his chopsticks.

“Uh, Nagisa?”

Nagisa wiped his face off with a napkin. “Sorry,” he answered sheepishly, cheeks warm. He’d reacted violently enough that he’d squeezed the strawberry in the grasp of his chopsticks far too hard, causing it to break open and squirt all over his face. “You surprised me, that’s all. I don’t…really want to talk about it.”

Sugino held two hands up in the air in the universal sign for surrender. “Hey, no problem. We just met today, so I don’t expect you to tell me all your secrets or anything.”

Nagisa smiled slightly, setting the napkin back down. “I appreciate it.” Then, he glanced around the room, taking in the way all of the students had gravitated into certain groups for the class’s lunch break. “So, wanna tell me about the class?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sugino said quickly. “So, first, _that_ group.”

 

* * *

_15:34 – Day I, Main Entrance, Kunugigaoka High School_

“There, all done!” Sugino chirped, tapping once more on the screen of Nagisa’s brand new phone. They returned each other’s phones, and Nagisa glanced at the new contact card with a small smile. “Now you have my email address, in case you want to talk or something.”

“Thanks,” Nagisa replied, tucking his phone back into his pocket. “If nothing else, I might just message you to help me find our classroom in the morning.”

Sugino laughed out loud, and Nagisa joined him after a moment. “Don’t be afraid to, honestly,” he answered eventually.

“It really was great to meet you, Sugino-kun,” Nagisa said, smiling genuinely. “See you tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah, see you!” Sugino called, before turning on his heel and heading off in the direction of the train station along with dozens of other grey-clad students, Kayano – the green-haired one – chattering at his side.

Nagisa began walking in the opposite direction, still smiling slightly to himself. His first day of school had gone infinitely better than he’d expected. He’d made a friend - maybe a _few_ friends - and…

_Attracted really forward but also really attractive admirer?_

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Nagisa thought he heard footsteps echoing his own. He stopped and turned around, expecting to maybe see one or two Kunugigaoka blazers behind him, but no one was there.

A chill ran down his spine, and Nagisa picked up his pace, ignoring the way he could constantly feel a prickling at the back of his neck because clearly, no one was following him.

It was about a twenty-minute walk home, so, just to be safe, Nagisa pulled his phone out of his bag and had 110 dialed in case anything unexpected _did_ happen. But he was pretty sure that he was just being excessively paranoid.

 _Pretty_ sure.

* * *

 

_15:58 – Day I, Shiota Household, Kōenji_

“How was your first day, Nagisa?” Hiromi asked over the dining room table. It was barely four in the afternoon – too early for dinner, so he didn’t even have the escape of eating to hide from his mother’s relentlessly penetrating gaze.

“Good,” Nagisa replied as neutrally as possible. “My classmates were very welcoming,” he continued, which was true for the most part.

“Great,” his mother said, with a kind smile. “Now you just need to start working on getting out of that E-Class. That way, you should pretty easily get into the university.”

“Yes, Mom,” Nagisa acquiesced quietly, staring at his clenched fists under the table.

Hiromi stared at Nagisa for a long while after that, but Nagisa refused to move his gaze from the finished wood of the dining room table. Eventually, she stood and disappeared into the kitchen.

An hour or so later, they shared a small dinner of rice, vegetables, and salmon, wherein Hiromi didn’t speak and Nagisa didn’t encourage her to.

“Come here,” Hiromi said suddenly, just as Nagisa was contemplating excusing himself to his room. Obediently, Nagisa stood and walked over to his mother, who was sitting at the other side of the small table. “I want you to have a pretty outfit for formal events. We’re going shopping this Sunday.”

Nagisa tensed as his mother reached up towards him, but her eyes were glazed over and she didn’t seem to be on the verge of a fit. Instead of hurting him, she just smoothed her hands over the exaggerated curve of his waist and smiled fondly. Resting her palms on his hips, Hiromi said, “You have such a lovely figure, Nagisa. We’ll get you something nice that’ll…show it off.”

Nagisa shifted slightly, dull anger clenching in his chest like a fist around his heart. “Mom, I’m not…I don’t like girly things like you do, Mom.” Even as the words let his mouth, Nagisa regretted them, acutely sensing the explosion just moments before it came about. “Uh – I mean –“

“Of _course!_ ” she hissed, her expression contorting violently. Wildly, Nagisa thought that her face looked like sort of like a Dalí painting that he’d seen while doing research for a history project last year. “You continue to disappoint me!”

Hiromi’s grip tightened on Nagisa’s hips until he was restraining a tiny pained whimper. “Do you have any idea how this _feels?_ ” she roared, nails biting at the skin of his lower back. “To have the child you _raised_ and _cared_ for throw everything back in your face? Do you know how _hard_ I work for you? I try to give you a _gift_ , out of the goodness of my heart, and you _disrespect me like this?_ ” she shrieked.

“I-I’m really sorry, Mom,” Nagisa mumbled, blinking tears out of his eyes and staring at the wall above her head. “I won’t do it again.”

Hiromi let him go with a “be in bed by nine” and a stern glance – as though she were any other dime-a-dozen authoritative but well-meaning mother.

Once Hiromi had shut her bedroom door behind her, Nagisa headed into his bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. Slowly, he removed his hairband, letting his hair, previously gathered up into a single loose ponytail at the nape of his neck, fall around his neck and shoulders like a curtain.

Next was his vest; he quickly unfastened the three buttons and shrugged it to the floor. His tie, white button-down, loose cargo pants and briefs followed shortly, pooling on the tile in a messy pile. Almost on auto-pilot, Nagisa scooped up the loose articles of clothing and tossed them into the laundry basket in the corner the same way he would have done if his mother had been right there in the room, glaring him into submission.

Then, Nagisa straightened up before the mirror and smoothed his hands over his pale, flat chest. “See, Mom?” he murmured to no one, roughly pinching the thin skin over his heart. “Not a girl.”

Nagisa glared at his chest for a bit longer, lamenting the blatant lack of hair there, before his gaze traveled over to his arms. Nagisa lifted his hand and traced over the near-perfect row of parallel scars marring the white skin of his upper left arm.

Then he lowered his gaze to examine his hips. Immediately, he bit into his lower lip at the sight of his groin and couldn't look anymore, jerking his head away in disgust. As he moved, he felt something crumple under his heel. Twisting to look over his shoulder, Nagisa caught sight of a tiny slip of paper which had a string of letters written on it in red ink. He picked up the paper and smoothed it out with his fingers before laying it on the edge of the sink.

Then, Nagisa turned on the faucet and carefully removed the blades from the head of his razor. Once the blades were washed clean, Nagisa locked his gaze onto the paper with Karma Akabane’s email address written on it and did not make a sound as the metal sliced through his skin.

* * *

 

_07:53 – Day II, Shiota Household, Kōenji_

“ _No new evidence has been found regarding the death of Tsubaki Endo in Kabukichō early yesterday morning._ ”

Nagisa took a small bite of his toast, listlessly staring at the dining room table as the morning news played on the TV. His mother’s job was a train ride away, so she had left for the train station half an hour ago.

“ _In other news, another body was discovered in Kōenji at around the same time this morning. The man, currently unidentified, seems to be in his mid-forties, and he was found a few blocks north of Kunugigaoka Senior High School with a gunshot wound in his forehead.”_

Nagisa stiffened in surprise and began paying attention to the story. He thought they might show a picture of the victim, but the screen only depicted the face of a narrow-faced reporter, standing –

Nagisa’s throat clicked as he swallowed drily.

\- standing on the sidewalk that Nagisa had used to walk home from school less than twenty-four hours ago.

 _“Much like in Endo’s case, the wound is almost too small to be considered a bullet wound. The bullet that caused it must have been only a millimeter wide. The police refuse to comment on this tragedy, but these murders are beginning to look like the early stages of a serial killing spree. More on this later._ ”

Nagisa finished off his buttered toast and cleaned up the table, unsure of what the feeling rising in his chest was. He wanted to feel frightened by the fact that he could have walked past someone’s dead body on the way home from school, but he knew all too well that the potent emotion making his fists clench so tightly and his heart pump so quickly was not apprehension, but excitement. _Intrigue._

Tamping down his depraved thoughts, Nagisa finished up his morning routine, shutting off all the lights and the television, snatching up his backpack, and heading out the door.

* * *

 

_08:18 – Day II, Courtyard, Kunugigaoka High School_

A little while later, Nagisa reached the school. Today, he was a bit earlier than yesterday, and to his dismay, he couldn’t find anyone he recognized in the courtyard. He sent a message to Sugino, but waiting a few minutes heralded no reply. Eventually, he felt too restless to keep waiting outside. So he headed into the main building, hoping that he could somehow fumble his way to the classroom.

He stared at the clinically white walls as he passed them by, noting how everything outside of 2-E’s classroom seemed so cold and unfeeling.

Then he walked by a bulletin board which was covered in flyers. It seemed that the club festival was at the end of this week. None of the sports clubs he could see advertised there really appealed to him. _Maybe I’ll ask Sugino about what clubs there are,_ Nagisa thought. Then he continued on his way with a growing sense of dread – he was sure that he hadn’t seen that board yesterday.

 _Was it a right here?_ Nagisa thought to himself, trying to remember where Sugino had led him yesterday. Shrugging helplessly, Nagisa turned right, only to slam into someone walking briskly in the opposite direction.

The two of them went sprawling to the floor, and Nagisa flushed in mortification. _Twice in twenty-four hours? Really?_ “I’m so sorry,” he said aloud, scrambling to his feet so that he could pick up a few papers that the person had evidently dropped in the collision. “Here you go.” He thrusted his hands out and restrained a wince from the way the fresh cut on his arm stung, holding the only _slightly_ crumpled sheets out to the person, who Nagisa finally looked up at.

The male class representative for 2-E smiled kindly at him, standing and gently taking the papers from Nagisa’s grasp. “Thank you so much, Shiota-kun! You’re here early, aren’t you?”

Nagisa fidgeted uncomfortably under Isogai’s sweet, earnest gaze and tried not to stutter. “Y-yeah. I left home a little early by accident. And you can call me by my first name, Isogai-kun,” he corrected yet again.

“No problem, Nagisa-kun,” Isogai said casually, with a little wink. Nagisa pinked in response, his mind stuck repeating the word _cute_ as he tried to think of an appropriate response. Before he could do anything more than stare dumbly, Isogai continued. “So where were you headed when we bumped into each other?”

“I was actually trying to find the classroom,” Nagisa quietly admitted, abashed. Clearly, he hadn’t been going the right way. “I couldn’t remember the route Sugino-kun took me on yesterday.”

“Oh! Well, you can walk with me, then,” Isogai suggested with a slight incline of his head. “I’m on my way to make some copies, and then I’ll be heading back to the classroom.”

Nagisa brightened at Isogai’s easy acceptance and generosity. “Thanks, Isogai-kun!”

As they walked, Isogai spoke up again. “I’m glad I got a chance to talk to you alone, Nagisa-kun.”

Nagisa’s head snapped to the side in surprise at this. “A-about what?”

“Mostly just to welcome you to the class,” Isogai said, waving off Nagisa’s concern. “But I also wanted to give you a fair warning. This school is awfully competitive, and the E-Class gets a lot of discrimination for being on the bottom.”

Nagisa nodded, having gathered as much from what Sugino had said yesterday. “I heard…and the principal just lets it slide?”

Isogai smiled a bit sadly. “The principal participates in it, actually – oh, this is the copy room,” he interrupted himself. Isogai turned into a small, neat room with a large white machine in one corner. He laid his first sheet of paper in the scanner, pushed a few buttons, and then turned back to face Nagisa as the dinosaur of a machine slowly churned out copies. “The school-wide assemblies are the worst. It’s basically an opportunity for the whole school to make fun of us.”

Nagisa’s eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah.” Isogai pulled the papers out of the copier and repeated the same steps with a second sheet of paper. “Hold this for me?”

Nagisa took the small stack of papers from the class rep and cradled it in his arms. “So what’s _good_ about being in the E-Class?”

Isogai’s smile became a little bit brighter at this, and he said, “Oh, Koro-sensei is great. He really cares about the students, and he’s a great teacher. Things were much worse for the E-Class before he got here,” the class representative said wryly. “You’re lucky.”

Nagisa hummed, and the two of them stood in amiable silence, listening to the methodic clunking of the copier. A series of high-pitched chirps told them when the copies were done. After Isogai collected the second set of papers, he gestured for Nagisa to walk out in front of him.

“So…Sugino-kun told me yesterday that you were put in the E-Class for getting a part-time job,” Nagisa said carefully, his voice almost too loud in the virtually empty halls. He hoped that it wasn’t a sore subject. “Is that true?”

The class rep shrugged, but Nagisa could see a miniscule bit of tension in his shoulders that Isogai probably didn’t even realize was there. “Yeah. My dad…” he paused and swallowed thickly. “My dad passed away last year. My family needed me to work. I have a little brother and sister, you know?” He looked away as they turned a corner, but Nagisa saw the lines of stress around his mouth and eyes and his heart clenched.

“You’re a great guy, Isogai-kun,” Nagisa said honestly. “I’m sorry that this happened to you. Some people just have the worst luck.”

Isogai barked out a tight, unhappy laugh, startling Nagisa into almost dropping the stack. “You don’t know the half of it.”

On that uncomfortable note, the pair reached the classroom, which was largely empty aside from Koro-sensei. Their teacher was flipping through a… _questionable_ magazine and snickering to himself as they approached. When the door shut behind them, his eyes widened in surprise and he shoved the magazine into a drawer in a dizzying display of speed, cheeks reddening.

“G-good morning, students!” Koro-sensei stammered, shooting to his feet.

Nagisa averted his eyes in sympathy, but Isogai smiled graciously, if it was a bit forced. “We’ve brought the paperwork and flyers for the announcements today, Koro-sensei,” Isogai said, smoothly side-stepping the awkward moment.

“O-okay,” Koro-sensei said, anxiously smoothing down his tie. “Bring it here, Isogai-kun.”

As the two began quietly discussing whatever was on the papers, Nagisa quietly made his way over to his desk. After checking the schedule, he removed his notebook designated for Japanese History as well as his pen. The new cut on Nagisa’s left arm stung slightly at all the movement, but thankfully, he was right-handed, so he figured that he'd be fine for the rest of the day.

The other class representative entered the room just a few minutes later, bearing a pile of papers like the ones Isogai had needed help carrying. Isogai did not hesitate to quickly relieve Kataoka of her burden, scooping up the stack and setting it on Koro-sensei’s desk.

“Thanks, Isogai,” she said coolly. Despite her slightly brisk tone, which Nagisa noticed clung to everything she said, she quite clearly left off the honorific in addressing Isogai, leading Nagisa to believe that they had a close relationship.

Kayano entered shortly after, immediately seeing Nagisa and offering up a kind wave. Nagisa smiled hesitantly back as she approached the desk next to his, grinning all the while.

“Good morning, Nagisa-kun,” the girl greeted brightly. “How are you?”

“I’m good, and you?” Nagisa replied politely. A strand of hair fell into his face, and he nervously tucked it behind his ear.

“Great!” Then Kayano squinted, seeming to look just past his eyes. “You know, Nagisa, you have such pretty hair. I’m jealous.”

Nagisa blushed and looked down. “You think so?” he said quietly. He was used to people making note of his hair, but the comments were rarely complimentary. She nodded. “Thanks, but I don’t really like it at this length,” Nagisa said.

_For more reasons than one._

Kayano looked perplexed. “Really? Well, why don’t you just cut it, then?” she asked reasonably.

“Oh, it’s –“ Nagisa scrambled awkwardly for an excuse; in Miami, a boy with long blue hair was hardly of note and rarely questioned aloud – “a family thing. My mom won’t let me cut it; it’s traditional for the men in the family to grow out their hair,” Nagisa said, affecting a rueful tone and shrugging. “It’s a pain hanging at the back of my neck like this, but less so than having it completely down.”

It was a bald-faced lie, about as far from the truth as he could get without sounding _completely_ ridiculous, but Kayano seemed to accept it.

She made a soft noise of apparent understanding. “Well, how about I try something with it?” Nagisa carefully examined her face for any ill intent, but even though there was _something_ slightly off, he could tell that he wasn’t in any immediate danger. So he nodded once, smiling at her, and she clapped her hands together, excited. Kayano stood up and removed the hair-tie from Nagisa’s singular ponytail, allowing his long hair to fall about his shoulders. She hummed a light tune as she tugged at his hair for about thirty seconds, and soon enough, she was done.

“Look,” she squealed, brandishing a round compact mirror in front of Nagisa. “You’re the same as me now!”

Nagisa stared at the partial reflection of himself, gently touching the tight ponytails now at either side of his head. He could now feel the slight breeze coming through the open window, cooling the back of his neck. As he turned his head to face Kayano, he didn’t feel his hair whispering against his nape. Instead, he felt the just-a-bit-too-tight pull of his new hairstyle keeping him grounded and focused. This way, he couldn’t imagine his mother, carding her hands through the long, loose hair and praising him for being _so pretty, Nagisa_. “Wow,” he breathed in awe, a small smile fighting its way onto his face. “Thanks.”

“No problem!” Kayano chirped, clicking the mirror shut. She slipped back into her seat. Just in time, too, because shortly after, their classmates began entering the room in droves.

“Morning, Nagisa-kun!” Sugino said energetically. He paused before passing Nagisa’s desk, and he stared.

And stared.

And _continued_ to stare.

“Sugino-kun?” Nagisa said tentatively. “Wh-“

“Your hair – um…” Sugino trailed off quickly after interrupting Nagisa, blanching and looking somewhere in the vicinity of Nagisa’s ear. “What did you do to it?”

“Kayano tied it up for me,” Nagisa said slowly. “I didn’t really like the length of it.”

Sugino nodded and swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing. “Right. Um…it looks good.”

Nagisa smiled a bit tightly. Clearly, from Sugino’s reaction, it _didn’t_ look good, but he shrugged it off. He was happy with it, and grateful to Kayano for it. “Thanks, Sugino-kun.”

Sugino seemed to quickly move past the awkward tension, thankfully, and he set his bag down before sitting down himself. “So how’s it going?” he asked, as if nothing had happened.

Nagisa’s smile became more genuine, if a bit confused, as he turned in his seat to face his friend, ignoring the slight twinge of pain from the new bruises on his hips. “Good, and you?”

“I’m doing pretty well,” Sugino said. “By the way, have you thought about what club you’re going to join? Like a sport or something?”

Nagisa perked up at that, recalling the board he had seen earlier when he was lost. “Yeah, um…probably not an athletic club. I don’t…I’m not so great at sports.”

Sugino’s face fell a bit, and Nagisa almost wanted to take his words back. “Ah, okay,” Sugino said, rubbing at the back of his neck. But Sugino clearly wasn’t the kind of guy to dwell on things. “So what _do_ you like?”

Nagisa opened his mouth to reply, and then he closed it again when he realized he had nothing to say. Embarrassingly, he couldn’t answer the question.

Back in the US, his hobbies had been…whatever Norita told him to like. Whether it was sex, TV shows, or fine dining, Nagisa liked it because Norita wanted him to. And because Nagisa had always wanted to do what Norita wanted. But Nagisa tried his best these days not to think about Norita – like he was doing _right now_.

_Crap._

In present time, Nagisa feigned nonchalance, shrugging slightly. “Whatever. What clubs are there?”

Sugino tapped his chin in thought. “Well, besides athletics? We have an orchestra and a band, there’s art club, math team, English, Model UN, yearbook…” Then he faltered, lifting his hands in a sort of _what can you do?_ motion. “That’s all I can think of. Anything interest you?”

Nagisa thought that he might like to join the English club, and he said as much. At least he could add some of his own experience to the conversation. And it probably wouldn’t be a club that met for very long, but at least he could put off being home for an extra two hours or so.

Sugino nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. “You know, that might be perfect for you. I think they meet on Thursdays until 5:00 PM.” Then he sighed heavily. “The only thing is that E-Class sort of operates separately from the other classes. So the English club will probably be made up of just 2nd and 3rd year E-Class students.”

Nagisa replied drily, “That’s fine. Actually, it’s probably better than having to deal with the other students, from what I understand.”

“That’s true.” Sugino laughed, but there was a sour edge to it – _which_ , Nagisa thought, _sounded a bit like the way Isogai had laughed earlier_. _It seems to be a common theme in the E-Class – bitterness._

Then, Koro-sensei called on Kataoka to take attendance, so Nagisa gave Sugino a little wave – Sugino smiled benignly back and reached down for his writing utensils – before turning around again to face the board at the front of the room.


	3. Day II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to those who waited :)

_08:31 - Day II, Class 2-E, Kunugigaoka High School_

 

“We have an announcement today,” Isogai said once attendance was taken. Once again, though Terasaka – the large, aggressive boy – and his gang had been on time, Karma was late, seat blatantly empty in the back of the room.

Koro-sensei was standing just behind and to the right of the class representatives, who were at the front of the room holding those stacks of paper. _Finally_ , Nagisa thought, _I get to find out what that’s about._

Nagisa sat up a bit straighter in his seat, eager to hear about the new development, but everybody else seemed impassive. Kayano whispered, “It’s probably an assembly,” from Nagisa’s left, and that, admittedly, doused his anticipation a bit.

“We’re getting a new teacher,” Isogai continued, looking around at the students with a small smile. “For gym class.”

Murmurs started up around the class, with students saying things like, _A guy or a girl?_ and _Old or young?_

Nagisa heard Sugino say under his breath, “Good, because another week with Koro-sensei would probably kill me.” A few people nearby laughed at that.

Kataoka effectively shushed everyone and began handing out the papers. When the stack reached Nagisa’s desk, he saw that it was a letter to the student’s parents, informing them of the change.

“All the information we know about him is in that letter,” Isogai said simply. “So, it’s not much. But the chairman of the board assured me that Karasuma-sensei is very qualified. Please welcome him with kindness when he comes in on Thursday.”

The class responded with a half-hearted affirmative, and Kataoka cleared her throat. “In addition,” she said, her stern face pulling into something tight and uncomfortable, “There will be a school-wide assembly in the gym tomorrow.”

Almost all of the students groaned simultaneously, and Nagisa glanced over at Isogai. _So he was warning me because he knew this was coming?_

“ _Finally_ ,” Kataoka said firmly over the jeers, and waited for silence. The talking stopped. “the club festival will be on Friday, immediately after school. All students should sign up for a club then, if they haven’t already.”

Nagisa made a mental note to tell his mother that he would be home a bit late on Friday, and he felt no small amount of discomfort imagining her reaction.

Koro-sensei waved the student reps back to their seats, thanking them for making the announcement, and then he prepared to start the lesson. Per his instructions, the students flipped to the pages in their textbooks detailing the Jōmon period.

As Koro-sensei picked up a piece of chalk to write on the board, the door swung open, and Karma Akabane strode through, smiling as though butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

“Good morning, Koro-sensei!” Karma said, gently tapping the teacher’s desk with two fingers. “Sorry I’m late. Miss anything important?”

Koro-sensei gave Karma a dry look and handed him the two papers that held the information about the new teacher. “How lovely of you to join us, Karma-kun. Here are the announcements you missed.”

Karma irreverently saluted their instructor, earning himself a few scattered snickers, before beginning the trek to his seat at the back of the room. His sharp eyes scanned the pages almost inhumanly quickly, and he hummed lowly in interest.

Koro-sensei turned back towards the chalkboard, finally beginning the lesson. For all that Nagisa heard, though, Koro-sensei might as well have been speaking underwater. As Karma walked, Nagisa imagined he could feel the air between them tighten, like twine pulling taut – on the verge of snapping apart. When his pace didn’t change, Nagisa thought that he would just head straight to his seat, but Karma abruptly stopped next to Nagisa’s desk at the last possible second, prompting Nagisa to look up at him in slightly nervous inquiry.

Karma’s eyes seemed yet again to rake over Nagisa’s upper body before finally meeting his eyes, and Nagisa tried and failed to smother his blush. But before Nagisa could say or do anything, Karma leaned into Nagisa’s space and pinched a lock of light blue hair between his thumb and forefinger, with a smile that suggested many, _many_ , non-school-appropriate things. “I love your hair today, Nagisa-kun,” Karma said in a low tone, his gaze as eerily still and intent as ever, “Very cute.” Koro-sensei continued to teach at the front of the classroom, either not hearing the exchange or deeming it unimportant.

“I-I’m glad,” Nagisa stammered back quietly, then winced. _Was that too much?_ “I plan on wearing it like this from now on.”

Karma’s grin broadened into something a bit more predatory, and Nagisa shivered involuntarily, reminded unnervingly of the way his mother always hid her ill intent with a placid smile. When Karma was nearby, Nagisa always felt at least a little bit frightened; at the same time, the tension Nagisa was sensing seemed more like a thick cord, tugging them endlessly, inexorably closer to one another, wholly different from his mother’s rage, which felt like a sharp black dagger held pressed to his throat. More than anything, Nagisa was _intrigued_ – hooked, really – and both of them knew it.

“Good,” Karma replied neutrally, allowing the lock of hair to slip gently from his fingers as he continued on his way. “See you after class.”

Nagisa managed to nod tightly without saying anything else, and then he turned back to his notes, scribbling along with the teacher’s lecture.

From directly behind him, Nagisa could clearly sense the strange conglomeration of anger, fear and concern directed at himself. He dutifully ignored the way Sugino’s gaze seemed to sear holes into the back of his neck until the very end of class, when Koro-sensei left to…do whatever it was that he did in between classes.

“What?” Nagisa said finally, turning his desk around to face Sugino. He suppressed a wince at the twinge in the bruises on his lower back. “You obviously have something to say to me.”

Sugino clearly tried to make his face loosen up, his frown growing less severe and his brows relaxing out of their previous lowered position. “I just…you should probably stop encouraging him,” he said, “You can tell that he’s bad news, right? That I’m not just making this up?”

Nagisa rolled his eyes at Sugino and said, “I’m not _encouraging_ him. I’m just being nice.”

Sugino continued to somehow look extremely concerned and vaguely annoyed, which Nagisa thought was wholly unnecessary. They’d only met a day ago, after all. And not that Sugino knew it, but Nagisa was more than capable of taking care of himself. But he stopped pushing the issue, and their conversation turned towards Sugino’s old place on the baseball team, which was apparently lost due to class discrimination.

It was strange, especially considering that Nagisa didn’t think he really appreciated Sugino’s unwarranted overprotectiveness, but Nagisa kept feeling that he and Sugino were really hitting it off. When he wasn’t being awkward, Sugino was actually pretty entertaining and clever. _I wonder how he ended up here, at the bottom of the class._

“Yeah,” Sugino said a bit sheepishly. “It is kinda stupid, but there isn’t much _I_ can do about it, besides try my hardest to make the E-Class’s team stronger.”

Nagisa opened his mouth to reply, but once again found himself suddenly faced with the tall figure of Karma Akabane. This time, though, he didn’t immediately talk to Nagisa. He leaned down into Sugino’s face, leaving just inches of space between their noses, and said, “Do you need help practicing, Sugino-kun? I’d _love_ to catch for you,” with a totally guileless smile and wide eyes.

Sugino spluttered and tried to back away, but, to Nagisa’s slightly twisted amusement, he was boxed in by the desk. “Think I have all the help I need, _thanks!_ ” Sugino gritted out, looking caught between abject fear and disgust.

Nagisa thought that his reaction was a _little_ over the top.

Karma started to speak again, but then he froze, as if hearing or seeing something that no one else could. Nagisa looked around the room, but no one seemed to be paying any mind to their conversation – despite the subtly tense air. Nevertheless, Karma backed off some, shrugging and turning to Nagisa. Though the chairs were clearly only made to seat one person, Karma unabashedly shoved himself into the space next to Nagisa, casually slinging his right arm around Nagisa’s neck and pressing their bodies together from shoulder to ankle – approximately, seeing as how Karma was a good half-foot taller than Nagisa. Nagisa shifted awkwardly in an attempt to alleviate the pressure on his upper arm.

In this new position, Nagisa found himself with a face full of the thick, earthy scent of the woods. _And not_ , he instinctively realized, _the artificial kind of woods._

He abruptly realized that Karma was staring at him with this little smirk on his face. Feeling uncomfortably scrutinized, Nagisa blurted out the first thing on his mind. “Have you been in the woods recently?”

Sugino coughed awkwardly as a likely horrific blush flooded Nagisa’s cheeks. However, Karma just raised his eyebrows in something like surprise, not seeming creeped out or alarmed as Nagisa would have expected. “I was camping last night, actually,” Karma said with a crooked smile. “Why, do I smell bad?”

Nagisa swallowed his immediate initial retort, which was much too honest and _entirely_ too embarrassing, and dug up a shaky smile. “Uh…not at all,” he said eventually. “Very, um…well, no. Y-you smell fine.”

Karma’s eyes crinkled up at the corners as he smiled genuinely and let his fingertips rest lightly against Nagisa’s shirt sleeve, _right_ over where the older scars were on his right arm. Nagisa felt a chill run down his spine – a sensation that landed squarely between supremely, uncomfortably invasive, and deliciously, intensely arousing.

Then, Koro-sensei strode back into the room. Karma squeezed Nagisa’s shoulder and rose gracefully from the seat, all of his long limbs somehow unfolding easily into a standing position. He smiled once more, the picture of kindness, and headed back towards his desk.

Sugino scowled, and Nagisa smiled sheepishly in response.

“Don’t encourage him,” Nagisa deadpanned as he turned back to the front of the room. “Got it.”

Though he could no longer see him, Nagisa was certain Sugino was rolling his eyes at him.

* * *

 

_11:07 – Day II, Class 2-E, Kunugigaoka High School_

Nagisa bent over, panting heavily and resting his hands against his knees. “I’m so out of shape,” he groaned up at Sugino, who was upright and gasping at his side.

They had just undergone a rigorous thirty minutes of _actual physical activity_. The whole class period had consisted of an excruciating blur of chasing Koro-sensei around the decaying grass plain that the E-Class used instead of the actual school gymnasium. He hoped that the new PE teacher, Mr. Karasuma, would be more kind to them. It was such a far cry from the gym class at Nagisa’s old school that it was almost laughable – _almost_ , because Nagisa would much rather cry. He said as much to Sugino.

Sugino laughed weakly, in what may have been closer to a wheeze, and slapped Nagisa roughly on the back in a gesture of solidarity. In his weakened state, though, Nagisa stumbled forward, almost bowling over the person standing in front of him.

“ _Sorry!_ ” Nagisa squeaked, automatically. He had completely smacked into a girl’s chest, and in his surprise, he’d apologized in English. His face grew a darker shade of red, and he finally pushed away from the girl, opening his mouth to repeat the apology in Japanese.

_“It's okay,”_ she interrupted with a smirk and casual flip of her long, blonde hair. To Nagisa’s surprise, she responded in heavily accented English. “ _I don’t mind a pretty girl like you,_ ” she continued suggestively, sharp blue eyes dark and intent.

Nagisa could’ve sworn, in that moment, that there was no way he could ever feel more mortified. Nope, this was definitely the most uncomfortable he had ever been, and there was no coming back from this.

“ _I-I…I’m not…_ ” Nagisa stammered, having an embarrassing amount of trouble switching back to Japanese, but then Karma suddenly appeared behind the girl, waving jauntily.

“Rio-chan,” he chided as he approached. Funnily enough, Karma had not skipped class this time. Nagisa gaped slightly at him, because somehow, he made the E-Class’s standard issue blue gym clothes look unreasonably attractive. Moreover, he was enviably put-together, his skin seeming completely clear of sweat and his hair as perfectly in place as it ever was. “Don’t mess with Nagisa-kun.”

_Rio_ ’ _s_ eyebrows shot up in her surprise. “Oh! Sorry, Nagisa-kun! You’re just so cute – I thought you were a girl.”

_Put this on_ , Nagisa heard Norita’s voice say in his head. _I like you better as a girl._

Nagisa’s fingernails dug into his palms in frustration, but he offered her the best smile that he could manage, tamping down the ancient anger.

“Nagisa-kun,” Karma said, kindly. “Meet my sister, Nakamura Rio – my best friend and the worst person I know.”

“ _Karma_!” she said, laughing as she slapped his arm. Karma grinned unapologetically in response.

Nagisa looked between the two of them in disbelief, his upset forgotten for the time being. “You’re related?” Nagisa asked. “But you look nothing alike…and you have different last names.”

“We’re adopted,” Nakamura clarified with a sideways glance at Karma. There was something more subtle there that Nagisa missed the meaning of, but he didn’t question it. “All of us are,” she continued.

“All…of you?” Nagisa repeated blankly. _There are more of them?_

At this point, Sugino stepped back into the conversation, an uncomfortably forced smile on his face. “Hey, Nagisa. It’s time to go back in!”

Nagisa politely tilted his head towards Nakamura. "It was nice to meet you, Nakamura-san," he said, and after pausing to hear her equally polite response, he turned to follow Sugino towards the building.

Nagisa almost immediately picked up on Sugino’s stare once again, turning to meet his gaze. “What now?” he said, a bit impatiently.

“Nothing,” Sugino said quickly, his eyes darting towards the ground at his feet. Nagisa rolled his eyes in response, and they walked in silence for a few more moments.

Sugino’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it out, making a noise of interest in the back of his throat as he looked at whatever was on the screen. "Check it out," he said, a note of awe in his voice. "Have you heard about the killings?"

Nagisa took the phone in his own hand as it was offered and scrolled through the article, eyebrows raising as he did so. " _Another_ victim?"

"Yep," Sugino said. "Seems like it. They could have been killed around the same time, though, I guess. Do you think it's a serial killer?"

Nagisa shrugged and handed the device back to Sugino, who pocketed it. "I wouldn't know. But it _is_ creepy that the kills are happening so close to the school," he thought aloud. "Do you think it has to do with someone who goes here?"

Sugino hummed in interest and replied, "More likely a teacher, I think. There probably aren't any high school students crazy enough to kill someone like that."

Nagisa disagreed silently, thinking of Karma and Nakamura’s eerily similar sharp, deadly gazes, but nodded obediently along nonetheless.

“Hey,” Nagisa said curiously, realizing something. “Are you _following_ the killings?”

“Yeah,” Sugino replied, more than a little defensively. “Aren’t _you_? Everyone is!”

Nagisa was about to retort that _no_ , he _wasn’t_ , because who had phone alerts set for a _murder case_ , but then he noticed other members of their class looking down at their phones, gesturing furtively. Just then, Kimura appeared seemingly from nowhere, brandishing his own smartphone.

“Did you guys hear the news about the case yet?” he exclaimed, holding it out. “This is _crazy!_ ”

Nagisa blinked in surprise.

Soon, the whole class was crowded together, almost every one of them chattering about the news of the as-yet unnamed killer. Nagisa, beyond confused, slipped from the group and headed towards the school building to change back into his school uniform.

_So weird,_ he thought. _In Miami, violent crimes were part and parcel of living there. But I’d imagine that in such a big city like Tokyo, this sort of thing shouldn’t be a popular topic of conversation for_ high schoolers.

Reaching the building, Nagisa headed inside, but hesitated just inside the entrance as he tried to recall which way to go to reach the changing rooms.

“Hey,” a voice called from behind him. Nagisa turned to see, unsurprisingly, Karma coming in from outside. “It’s to the right.”

Nagisa rolled his eyes for what felt like the twentieth time that day. “Thanks,” he replied drily as he started heading in that direction. Karma casually fell into step beside him.

“Not interested in all of the murder chat?” Karma asked, amusement evident in his voice.

Nagisa made a quiet, non-committal noise. “It’s a bit _strange_ , isn’t it? That a bunch of teenagers are so interested in a local serial killer?” he asked.

Karma shrugged and opened the door to the changing room, gesturing for Nagisa to go before him. “Well, it _is_ a bit interesting, isn’t it? Tokyo’s a big city, but we don’t actually see a lot of murders these days. They’re probably just taken by the fact that something so high-profile is happening practically on our doorstep.”

Nagisa tensed slightly, recalling that uncomfortable feeling he’d faced when he had walked home just yesterday. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” he acquiesced as he stopped in front of locker number 27 and reached up to put in his combination.

In the ensuing silence, broken only by the clicking of their combination locks, Nagisa realized that, for the first time, he was alone in a room with Karma. He tried to swallow around the sudden lump in his throat.

Karma didn’t let on that he was affected by the setting, though, if he was at all. In fact, as Nagisa looked at him out of the corner of his eye, trying not to be obvious, Karma toed off his sneakers and unceremoniously stripped off his shirt just a dozen feet away. He clearly had no scruples about being undressed alone in a room with Nagisa.

Nagisa flushed but couldn’t make himself look away, frozen in place as his eyes took in the sharply defined muscles of Karma’s chest and abdomen. Embarrassingly, his gaze followed, enraptured, when Karma stripped off his sweatpants, drinking in the sight of his lean, but toned, thighs encased in the dark, expensive-looking fabric of his boxer briefs. After a moment or two of silence, Nagisa realized that Karma had stopped moving.

Wrenching his eyes up and away with a growing sense of dread, Nagisa met Karma’s gaze with a very strong awareness of how quickly his heart was beating in his chest.

“See something you like?” Karma asked, his voice damnably neutral. But Nagisa could clearly see that his eyes were dancing with suppressed laughter.

Nagisa made a strangled sound as blood rushed to his face, and all he could think about was how _awkward_ Karma made him feel and act. Nagisa had never been so wrong-footed around a guy before – at least, not since he had accepted his sexuality during his third year of junior high school.

“I don’t mind,” Karma said eventually, planting his hands on his hips with a cocky smirk. “Look all you like.”

And with that, he turned around, bending over to reach into his locker for clothes. Nagisa shamelessly stared at his ass for a good five seconds before the sound of their classmates outside jolted him into action and he began stripping out of his own clothes, trying to dismiss the air of voyeurism that he felt was hovering around him like a shroud.

He didn’t waste time in changing back into his button-down, not wanting to draw attention to his scars – though they were mostly covered by his undershirt anyways. Nagisa then tugged his cargo pants back up, letting his thoughts be drowned out by the din of about ten other guys shoving each other around as they headed towards the single wall of lockers to change back into their school uniforms.

Before leaving to head back to the classroom, Nagisa spared one more glance for Karma. When he looked over, in between Isogai and the weird kid with the shaved head that Nagisa had trouble recalling the name of, Karma was already watching him, leaning against the wall opposite the door with his arms crossed.

Karma deliberately trailed his eyes over Nagisa’s body once before giving him a smug grin, and Nagisa pinked once more before gathering up his backpack and scuttling out the door.


End file.
